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Predoctoral Course Catalog

DENTFN 532

Dental Curriculum Threads

Renal & Respiratory

Course Director: Bruce Silverstein
Credits: 4
Quarters/Yr of Program: Spring / 1

Course Overview

This course will give students an integrated understanding of the respiratory and renal systems of the body. Students will follow how oxygen and nutrients move from the environment to the tissues, and how waste products of metabolism follow the opposite path, examining the coordinated roles of the lungs and kidneys in the control and regulation of these processes and the maintenance of homeostasis. Students will consider physiology and disease processes at the level of the organ system, with a focus on the physiology and pathophysiology of the lungs and kidneys. Understanding these systems is key to understanding human health and disease for the practice of general dentistry.

Learning Objectives

The student who successfully completes this course will be able to:

1. Describe the external and internal morphology of the kidneys and lungs.
2. Use anatomical specimens, medical imaging, and living adults to explain key anatomical relationships between the kidneys, lungs, major blood vessels, and the structures and landmarks that surround them.
3. Describe the normal physiology of the renal and respiratory systems.
4. Delineate the role of the renal and respiratory systems in maintaining homeostasis including sodium and water regulation, electrolyte balance, and acid-base balance.
5. Identify connections between pathophysiologic and histopathologic abnormalities and the major disease processes affecting the kidneys and lungs.
6. Interpret clinical, laboratory, radiographic, and histopathologic data to identify the major disease processes affecting the renal and respiratory systems.
7. Identify the etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostic features, prevention, treatment, and prognosis of major diseases and conditions of the pulmonary and renal systems, including implications for the practice of dental medicine.
8. Outline a treatment approach, including pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures, for the major disease processes affecting the lungs and kidneys.
9. Relate the mechanism of action for major classes of drugs to the pathophysiology of the major diseases of the kidneys and lungs.
10. Interpret clinical and other diagnostic information, recognizing the side effects and primary toxicities of the major classes of drugs used to treat diseases of the kidneys and lungs.
11. Describe how pulmonary and renal diseases affect the oral cavity and the provision of dental care.

UWSOD Competencies: C-01, C-10, CE-02, CE-03, C-03, CE-06, C-11, C-12, C-13, C-31, C-17

Date last updated: 2024-03-09